This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org:
---
Title       : 	Exchange 2007 and 2010 Autodiscovery DNS SRV record for BIND
Author      : 	Remy van Elst
Date        : 	09-05-2013
URL         : 	https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Exchange_2007_2010_Autodiscovery_DNS_SRV_record_for_BIND.html
Format      : 	Markdown/HTML
---



Note: This article is targeted at *NIX administrators who have to manage
Exchange installations, but are not Microsoft specialists. Therefore the BIND
setup does not have an explanation, but the Exchange part has.

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### What is Exchange Autodiscovery

Exchange 2007/2010 Autodiscovery is the ability for Outlook to automatically
configure itself to an Exchange 2007/2010 server. The main benefit is for remote
users to use Outlook on the Internet as if it was connected on the LAN, this is
called Outlook Anywhere or Outlook RPC over HTTP. This is very easily
accomplished by having a specific DNS record available for the domain.

#### How does Exchange Autodiscovery work?

Outlook has a few ways to look for domain information when configuring itself
based on the users email address. Lets say I want to set up Outlook as
`john.doe@example.org`, but my site does not have the required Autodiscovery XML
files set up. I enter that email address in Outlook, now Outlook do the
following things to get its information:

  * Autodiscover posts to https://example.org/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml. This fails.
  * Autodiscover posts to https://autodiscover.example.org/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml. This fails.
  * Autodiscover performs the following redirect check: GET http://autodiscover.example.org/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml. This fails.
  * Autodiscover uses DNS SRV lookup for _autodiscover._ tcp.example.org, and then "mail.example.org" is returned.
  * Outlook asks permission from the user to continue with Autodiscover to post to https://mail.example.org/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml.
  * Autodiscover's POST request is successfully posted to https://mail.example.org/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml.

There are various reasons not to set up the Autodiscovery XML on the main
website or the Autodiscover.example.org. Mainly because it requires extra
certificates, IP addresses and maintenance. Maybe a company does not have
Windows servers to host their main website, or they don't want the hassle. In
those cases the DNS SRV record works very nice.

### BIND DNS Record

The following record line should be put in your zone config file
(`/etc/bind/example.org`):

    
    
    ; Exchange autodiscovery
    _autodiscover._tcp                      IN      SRV 0 0 443 mail.example.org.
    

After a `rndc reload` you should be able to use the Autodiscovery service
without problems. It is tested with BIND 9.8.

### Sources

[White Paper: Exchange 2007 Autodiscover Service][2]  
[A new feature is available that enables Outlook 2007 to use DNS Service
Location (SRV) records to locate the Exchange Autodiscover service][3]

   [1]: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212
   [2]: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332063.aspx
   [3]: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940881/en-us

---

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